Women and Sexual Assault in Middle East:

Women and Sexual Assault in Middle East: Cries for Help

         
Sexual assault can be considered one of the most common, atrocious, brutal crimes, in the Middle East and around the world. It is one of the most serious and extremely dangerous social problems. The definition of sexual assault as a concept is very broad; it includes rape, attempted rape, and all forms of sexual harassment. nevertheless the term sexual assault is  used interchangeably with rape crimes.
The most common form of sexual assault is the aggression of a man, or a group of men, on one woman. Other common forms of sexual assault are aggression of one man, or group of men, on one man, and the sexual assault of children.
Sexual assault has devastating, long term impacts on the victims. Survivors are physically, emotionally and psychologically traumatized. After the trauma, survivors described feeling, "devastated and broken," being filled with emotional pain, feelings of shame, guilt, self-blame, and helplessness. The psychological trauma has long term impacts on the survivor's life.
The survivors may have trouble trusting people, experience chronic nightmares, and/or have a variety of post-traumatic stress disorder symptoms. The experience of the sexual assault will change the path of the survivor's life forever. The survivor will never be the same person as he/she was before the assault, and will hold an unforgettable agony for the rest of his/her life. That is, if he/she does not commit suicide.
The modern psychological theories presume that there are three motives for the offenders. First, the assault may be motived by anger.  This is when the offender's intent is to retaliate against the victim for something personal, or because the offender is filled with anger. They find their assault as an outlet to release their anger by humiliating the victims. They use physical violence and profane language to achieve that. For these type of offenders sex is a weapon to defile and degrade the victim.
Second, offenders motived by power. These types of offenders are trying to compensate their underlying feelings of inadequacy and feed their issues of mastery, control, strength and authority. The intent of these offenders is to assert their power and control the victims.
Third, offenders motived by sadistic desires. For this type of offenders, sex is associated with anger and power, so that aggression and infliction of pain itself is eroticized. The offenders take pleasure in the victim torment, anguish, distress, helplessness, and suffering. These offenders may be pushed by one motive, a combination of two, or all of the above.
The offender will plan his assault based on his motives, even if it's subconsciously. In case the aggression, motivated by anger, the offenders will gain the satisfaction by inflicting the damage, distress, and sadness upon the victims. In cases of aggression motivated by power, the offenders may record or videotape the aggression as a way to control and blackmail the victims afterword. In cases where the aggression is motivated by sadism, the victims will rarely survive the attack. Offenders gain the ultimate satisfaction through murdering the victims.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of the women in the Middle East, who are the victims of sexual assault, are reluctant to report the assault to the authorities, or even to their families. This is due to the social practices and the conservative cultural of the Middle East. Unlike most women in the other cultures, who are survivors of sexual assault, survivors of sexual assault in the Middle East, lose the honor of the family. Society, and at times, even the family, blame the innocent victim, and hold her accountable for the assailant act. Such types of atmospheres encourage the intention because of the lack of accountability.
Offenders take advantage of the social concepts that women bring honor to the family. Offenders know with certainty that most women will never report the crime due to social reasons or because women know they lack fair and equal access to the law and courts in the Middle East. There are laws against sexual assault, but if the rapist agrees to marry the victim, the charge(s) will be dropped.
The victims are left in torment to face their destiny alone. Forced to try and heal in a ruthless strict culture where the sanctity of virginity is held in the highest of esteem. Everybody forgets about them. Nobody cares about them. Nobody cares about the victim's rights. Yet, everyone cares about how to sustain and preserve the social habits? And at the expense of a woman who has been brutally violated? How can this be? She is the scapegoat. Society, in their imaginary mind, is protecting the honor of the family. Nobody stops, not even for a moment, and tries to imagine how the victims feel. Not even the legislators!
The legislators, in some countries of the Middle East, wrote laws, making it legal to marry the victim in lieu of charges being brought against him. They took into consideration the preserve the social habits. This shows clear partiality toward the men, even when they are convicted of the most awful brutal crimes, and they completely ignored the rights of the victims. It goes  without saying. How could a raped woman accept her rapist to be her life partner by marriage? Really, the legislators have gone too far in oppressing women rights!
A real example of the seriousness, the level of the social and humanitarian crisis, women survivors of sexual assault are facing, is the recent infamous and notable incident, which happened to an innocent, 16 year old, Moroccan girl. She had been raped by her neighbor. When she came back from school and informed her father, they reported the crime to the authorities. The case went to court, which ended in a court order for her to marrying her rapist. This decision allowed the charges to be dropped against the rapist. Six months later, this innocent girl committed suicide. She had been maltreated in every possible way by her husband (her rapist previously) and his family.
 The story of this innocent girl symbolizes and embodies the lack of legal and social protection of women. Her story gave the world a glance of the serious attention needed into laws that protect victim's rights and the dire need for women's shelters and women's services offered through civil society organizations in the Middle East.
Most of the victims will not reveal any information about the aggressions, or the perpetrators, because they know for certain that everyone will stand against them, the legislators, community, and family. No one will support them. Everyone will stand beside the men, even when they are a convicted felon in such a crime.
The women have been taught a long time ago that in this culture, they have too much to lose, while the men are always in a win-win situation. So the victims have to deal with their horrific experience alone. The victims have been left alone in sorrow and submission. That is, if they do not have to comply to the blackmail and the desires of the offenders afterward. No matter what the demands are.
There are solutions for this dangerous social problem. Some are short term and some are long term but all are sustainable.
First, there needs to be centers and rehabs which offer psychological therapy for the victims. The centers must offer and guarantee the confidentiality of the identity of the victims and their experiences. This is the biggest concern of the victims in the Middle East (their confidentiality). This is just like the centers and rehabs for victims of sexual assaults in the advanced countries.
Second, there needs to be legal reform that offers fair and equal access to law enforcement, courts, and legal process. Countries must annul the law that allows marriage to the victim in lieu of criminal charges. There must be very strict, serious, and consistent legal consequences. There must be no leniency with any convicted felon of rape at the expense of the victim.
There must be a long-term commitment to rape awareness and social education. The innocent girls grow up and become possible targets to assailants. They need to be taught how to protect themselves by being aware, how to spot signs of potentially dangerous men or situations and how to avoid them, their traps or their ambushes.
The statistics refer that very few who commit such crimes are strangers to the victims, while a high percentage refer that the perpetrators of such a crime are an acquaintances, or have been able to earn the trust of the victim through some type of  a relationship.
The women who are victims of sexual assault in Middle East need a real, strong support system that will stand for their rights. Besides friends and family, the civil society community organizations, women rights advocates, and human rights advocates are well needed.
There is a real social humanitarian crisis happening right now. Women need every bit of support that can be offered by the legislators, civil society community and humanitarian organizations.